Mini LD #20 and that ever elusive “community feeling”.
(EDIT: Woo hoo, we got voting! Thanks so much, you made my day. I officially owe you one, GBGames. I tip my proverbial hat to you.)
First off let me say I love Ludum Dare, and the few people that did bother to foster a sense of community between peers during the last compo were wonderful. But honestly, the silence was deafening this weekend and for me it felt like we all just worked alone. Sure there was some nice IRC chatter, and sure the host did have a power failure and wasn’t able to participate. It was not his fault at all.
What do YOU think? Was the sense of community “brothers-in-arms” that you got out of Mini LD #20 what you expected? Did you, like me, want more? Did it feel disorganized? Like a ghost town? Did you feel part of a community or did you feel like you were alone in your efforts? Did you wish for a bigger “pat on the back”?
A think a flameless discourse regarding how the minis could be better run would be helpful for the community – but I don’t want a troll fest so before you get angry please note that I do hold each and every one of my fellow coders in very high regard.
Much respect,
BMcF
I can’t really address all your points, I wasn’t around during MiniLD 20 .. But I can say that the voting and comments part of the competition system ARE available to all MiniLD’s IF the host wishes it! Some hosts want games rated and whatnot, some don’t care to, they get to make the rules, so each MiniLD has its own unique feel. That uniqueness, I think, is a strength.
-Phil
I think you expected too much out of a miniLD.
Having a sense of community is a good thing, but not the most important thing. Making games is. Compared to main Ludum Dares, miniLDs have all been small and relatively quiet. I think they should be kept as-is. They really don’t need a change as far as I can tell. 23 games being made is a lot more important than silly votes…
Stick around until the next Ludum Dare, you won’t be disappointed.
I highly recommend hanging out on the IRC channel #ludumdare on irc.afternet.org . I do think comments for games should always be enabled, even if ratings are optional.
Agreed, irc is a great place to hang out and talk about the games you’re making.
As for ratings… I kind of think they should be turned off, but comments on. It would make leaving comments so much easier, and the comments themselves easier to keep track of.
I only agree about the ‘always on’ for comments about the game. So most of them won’t just vanish somewhere in the blog-post-jungle. A reply by the game-creator would be a nice thing… But hey, you can’t force to have a fun community! I know that it might be a bit unsatisfying if there is no voting and not much comments.
But miniLDs were never meant to be a competition but more a community-practice to be ready for the next LD as it is not easy to finish something in 48h. I am strictly against voting during miniLDs. Where would be the difference to an official LD? The consequence would be that the miniLDs would become more or less real LDs, a monthly competition. Nothing special anymore. Maybe that would solve the problem that >200 people participating for which you all have/want to vote, but that would in my oppinion harm the community more than it would be helpful.
So just wait to the next month when the next LD will be started with lots of people and lots of comments
and LOTS of voting!! Afaik the ludumdare-team is working on some changes for the website and even about some changes for the competition….( http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/04/28/future-dare/ )
So keep on rocking and don’t forget! The most important about all of this, is your piece of software and that you produced something!
Thanks guys for the intelligent comments. Derton is right, the games this time “vanished into the blog-post-jungle”. I think you are all probably right – my expectations for Mini LD #20 were too high. I expected people to care and encourage.
Your comments regarding the “main” compos and future improvements to the system are enough that I just might not pack it in. I would never join a mini again, as I make games for a living, so unlike with some other people a finished product wasn’t really my goal – I already have lots of those.
All I wanted outta this was the community aspect. Unfortunately I came away from it with regret and wished I’d never joined. It simply wasn’t worth it for me. Kinda sad.
The main competition next month might have what I was looking for. If not.. well, I’ll just go back to real life, programming in a vacuum, alone in a sea of code… sniff… sob… =)
since this was my first time doing an LD competition, I was not sure what to expect. It would have been nice to know more about how it was going to be run. All I had to go on was the rules wiki and few older blog post from minLD19. Also I thought everything had to be done from scratch, with a few non-logic based libraries, but using game engines just seems to to defeat the purpose. Maybe minLD’s should have their rules and such posted. That way we get a better idea of how its going to be run.
I tried going on irc, but the room is always empty ( except for the day the compo started ). The site is also a complete cluster f**k. There is no real guidance on how to enter a competition, best way to post about your progress, and entry commenting. WordPress is just not the right tool for this kind of site. If only there was a large number of programmers willing to waste a weekend writing something from scratch! ( Of course I’m not a web programmer, I do mostly unix sys apps and scripts )
-wy
IRC was empty? What are you talking about? It’s active all year round! I’m going to guess you were on the wrong network. The correct network is AfterNET, irc.afternet.org . Channel is #ludumdare .
your right, looking through my history, i connected to #lundumdare … silly me
Well, a lot of emotions we had here, and while now I am aware that it wasn’t the host who we should blame, still I must say there were times when I wanted to stuff that glass of juice down his throat. There I said it. Now what I’m sure.. Breakdance McFunkypants wanted to say is that if compo is not voting event as such, then its fine, but what we expect in return is a bit more commenting between people who applied, human interaction that is. The number of posts we have now seems decent enough, but at the time this thing was going on and just after the finish it seemed kind of dead, even though this was expected to be a climax according to how human brain is trained to perceive reality.
…but you cannot force this!! If it happens (that people are so proud of each other) then it is cool but it differs a lot from the people who participate and how they do it. I for myself code until the last minute and most of the time I don’t finish. Nevertheless I try until the end, pushing myself. I know that the community part is nice, but for me is finishing the most important thing. I simply don’t have time to read every post and actually I don’t have the urge to comment every post just because there is one…After the compos I have most of the time to finish my workday with an unbelivable lack of sleep and start very slow with playing the other games. I know you have a lot of expectations about the events and its participants and I agree that it is fine if you get some feedback to your posts but if not, don’t let it come to you heart.
And don’t miss the ICQ channel as this is in my oppinion the better way for getting feedback. Now lets head to the next events…Keep on rocking!
Raspadsistema and McFunkyPants, I apologize if this MiniLD didn’t meet expectations.
Normally I post a ton in my journal, and this weekend, I didn’t. I did use Twitter a bit, and for some reason the pics I took with my phone didn’t get through to TwitPic until 24-48 hours after the compo was over.
I didn’t get to finish my project, partly due to a power outage, and partly due to my poor project management skills. I was hoping to get it done by Monday as a few others were hoping to do, but I couldn’t do it then due to other priorities.
But hosting this MiniLD was important to me. I was at an event and made sure to check to see if the theme was announced properly (I had to use someone else”s computer, find a web-based IRC client, and ask, then log into this site and figure out why the post didn’t publish correctly, etc). I know it’s been a few days since it was supposed to be over. I would love to get voting going as closure.
I am really pleased to see the quantity and quality of games made, and I mentioned as much on IRC. A closing blog post would have been a good way to end it, especially for the people who aren’t in IRC, but I was still hoping to finish the project I had. Then I didn’t. And then LudumDare.com wasn’t the most urgent thing for me to take care of this week.
Next time I host a MiniLD, you can be sure that I’ll be better prepared.
No worries whatsoever, GBGames. There are no hard feelings and in fact I’m really happy to see what you’ve done (open up some voting and get back to us). Life is messy and things don’t always go as planned. As developers I’m sure we all have suffered unplanned headaches.
THANK YOU for being a gracious host and taking a little criticism with a lot of class.
Much love and respect to all,
BMcF
Yeah no hard feelings even though it may sounded like I was really offended it isn’t so, it was just part of lunacy one might gain after 48h game making compo.